June 23, 2025
Provided Image/Sharing Excess
Sharing Excess, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia, has become one of the largest food redistribution organizations in the country with over 2,000 distribution sites across 36 states.
Since Drexel graduate Evan Ehlers started Sharing Excess in 2018, the food rescue nonprofit has established over 2,000 distribution sites across 36 states and helped feed over 10 million people across the country.
As the organization's expansion efforts collides with industry challenges from federal funding cuts, Ehlers said the core of its mission remains in Philadelphia.
"Our home is in Philadelphia," Ehlers said. "No matter how much we grow, I really think that the heart and ethos of our organization is in Philly."
Sharing Excess uses the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market as its pseudo-headquarters, partnering with some of the biggest wholesale food producers in the mid-Atlantic region and using the 700,000 square foot space to redistribute its products.
In the wake of major funding shake-ups to food banks, Sharing Excess is looking ahead to how redistributing food waste can be used as a tool to close the hunger gap.
Ehlers, 29, was inspired as an undergraduate at Drexel when his 50 dining hall points were set to expire. The Westchester, New York, native was disheartened by the idea that so much food goes to waste in a city where 1 in 3 children faces hunger.
In 2016, Ehlers used the remainder of his meal plan points, packed his car full of the food and gave it to people around Philadelphia who needed it.
"The line of people that appeared at my car ... I'm a stranger giving food out on the street and people [were] profusely thanking me for the same food I was going to let go to waste," Ehlers said. "It just left an impression on me that completely changed my outlook of what I wanted to do."
Over the years, Ehlers began to draft what would become Sharing Excess — an organization that takes food from wholesalers, farmers, restaurants and other organizations that would otherwise go to waste and redistributes it to local food banks or directly to people who need it.
While Sharing Excess has been expanding, it and similar food distribution organizations are facing an uphill battle in the wake of slashes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds vital programs for people facing food insecurity.
On top of cuts that have already been made, President Donald Trump's administration has proposed a nearly $7 billion reduction to the agency's funding in 2026. These losses would drastically impact food banks and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is used by nearly 500,000 people in Philadelphia.
"I think the federal funding cuts are one of the biggest emergencies of our time in the charitable food network," Ehlers said. "There being a lack of food and also a major increase in the amount of people in need ... it creates a tornado scenario."
Earlier this month, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) filed a lawsuit against the USDA for its unlawful termination of a Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program that supports nearly 200 farms and 14 food banks statewide. The funding cuts would have been able to provide an estimated 4.4 million meals to Pennsylvania families, Shapiro said.
"This is obviously devastating," Ehlers said. "What we're trying to do in this time is support all of our food bank partners the best we can. ... This only puts the entire country in a worse scenario."
In the meantime, Ehlers and Sharing Excess are focused on sharing food and their message. Recently, Ehlers was invited by Bogotá, Colombia's first lady, Carolina Deik, to show how Sharing Excess' services could be put to use internationally.
"We need more people paying attention to this and eating this food and using it or reducing the waste, rather than letting it just hemorrhage," Ehlers said. "It's important to take a stand on what is going on."
